Portland City Council to Consider Settlement with Teen Attacked by Police

The night of September 14, 2014, 16-year-old Thai Gurule was crossing the street in the St. John's neighborhood. He was with his older brother and some friends when a group of police offers stopped them.

Officers would later say that Gurule and the others fit the description of a group who had been creating a disturbance. They would claim that Gurule walked away when they approached him, that he resisted arrest, threw punches, put one of the officers in a headlock.

The officers would testify that force had been necessary as was the decision to use a taser against the teen.

Unfortunately for the officers, the encounter had been captured on video by passersby.

The judge who heard the case acquitted Gurule of all charges, stating she had found the officers's version of events to not be credible and that a reasonable person would have concluded the officers had used "excessive force."

She also ruled that the stops had been illegal, that neither Gurule or any of the people with him had been engaged "in any disruptive, suspicious, or criminal behavior."

Gurule later filed a lawsuit against the Portland Police Bureau.

According to documents attached to the City Council agenda for next week, the city had the case separately investigated and concluded they might lose the suit. As a result, they have reached a tentative $90,000 settlement with Gurule and his lawyer.

Under the settlement - which the council will consider on Wednesday - Gurule's lawyer, Stephen Houze, would receive about one third of the settlement.